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The Hobbit Hole (General/Chat)

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  • Bring Back Hate It's a lost virtue in a lost time

    12/09/2003 12:17:11 AM PST · by LadyDoc · 6 replies · 270+ views
    NY Press ^ | 11-1-03 | Mark Gauvreau Judge
    Bring Back Hate It’s a lost virtue in lost times. All these years later, I still remember the woman’s face. It was the early 1990s and I was working for the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial, a liberal activist group in Washington, DC. My branch dealt with juvenile justice issues. One day we had a meeting with the head of a DC youth services advocacy group and a member of the DC government. The woman from the youth advocacy group was incensed that, due to some kind of bureaucratic logjam, teenage girls in the district had to wait several days to...
  • The Encyclopedia of Arda: Tolkien Reference Guide

    12/06/2003 3:24:50 PM PST · by FReepaholic · 2 replies · 254+ views
    The Encyclopedia of ArdaAn excellent online Middle Earth reference guide.
  • What Tolkien can tell us

    12/06/2003 10:11:34 AM PST · by Willie Green · 20 replies · 234+ views
    The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Saturday, December 06, 2003 | Anthony T. Selvaggio
    <p>A couple of weeks ago I was sitting through the obligatory stream of coming attractions to which movie theaters subject their patrons. It was the montage of gratuitous violence, sex and inanity that make up the standard fare from the factories of Hollywood.</p>
  • "Return of the King - post all reviews here"

    12/06/2003 5:26:58 AM PST · by ecurbh · 95 replies · 1,013+ views
    The Hollywood Reporter ^ | Dec 8, 2003 | David Hunter
    Legolas the elf, Gandalf the wizard and Aragorn, heir of Isildur, return for the final installment of New Line Cinema's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy, "The Return of the King." Dec. 08, 2003 The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King By David Hunter Bottom line: Well, Frodo is back in theaters and so will be a multitude of moviegoers. Opens Wed., Dec. 17 NEW YORK -- An epic success and a history-making production that finishes with a masterfully entertaining final installment, New Line Cinema's adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Lord of...
  • It's the biggest, and the best

    12/05/2003 6:40:52 AM PST · by maquiladora · 135 replies · 343+ views
    London Daily Telegraph ^ | (Filed: 05/12/2003) | John Hiscock
    The Lord of the Rings trilogy was probably the greatest gamble in filmmaking history. Executives at New Line Cinema risked the entire studio by giving Peter Jackson – a New Zealander known mainly for a handful of zombie films and the real-life drama Heavenly Creatures – $300 million and a free hand to make all three films at once. The first, released amid much anticipation and scepticism, took in almost $1 billion around the world. So did the second. The only question with The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is not how much it will make...
  • Two Left Thumbs Down (ROTK panned on Amazon)

    12/03/2003 2:37:53 PM PST · by Faraday · 23 replies · 1,077+ views
    OpinionJournal.com ^ | 12/03/03 | James Taranto
    <p>This movie will make a billion dollars. Americans are dying in Iraq. Heck, Americans are being opprressed [sic] and starving in America. So what if some lame-brain character in a movie with a budget as large as the GNP of Zimbabwe succeeds in a make-believe quest in a non-existent country against pretend enemies? It's all so inconsequential!</p>
  • 'Rings' Gets Rousing NZ Premiere

    12/02/2003 1:54:43 PM PST · by Cathryn Crawford · 40 replies · 174+ views
    CNN ^ | 12.01.03
    <p>WELLINGTON, New Zealand (Reuters) -- Thousands of ecstatic fans cheered "The Lord of the Rings" at the world premiere of the final installment of the award-winning movie trilogy.</p> <p>Like a victorious general at the front of his army, home-grown director Peter Jackson led stars from "The Return of the King" for five km (3 miles) through central Wellington on Monday, flanked by characters clad in armor and on black horses.</p>
  • New Zealander Builds a Hobbit Hole ( Jackson's the ringmaster )

    12/02/2003 12:04:27 PM PST · by John Farson · 19 replies · 277+ views
    NEWS.com.au ^ | 12/2/2003 | Claire Harvey
    HE is the hobbit king of New Zealand, hailed throughout the land as the saviour of hope, goodness, truth and the national economy. Now director Peter Jackson can burrow into his own little hobbit-hole, snug inside a grassy hillside. The set of Bag End, the round-walled underground home of hobbits Bilbo and Frodo Baggins, always felt cosy to Jackson over the past seven years of creating the Lord of the Rings film trilogy. But big Hollywood studios aren't known for their sentimentality and New Line Cinema wanted the set demolished as soon as shooting was completed. The rotund and furry...
  • Oscar talk for Return of the King

    12/01/2003 5:57:07 PM PST · by Spruce · 93 replies · 541+ views
    Sydney Morning Herald ^ | Dec 2, 2003 | Sydney Morning Herald
    Related: Scenes from The Return of the King Director Peter Jackson's third and final film in The Lord of the Rings series has Oscar "written all over it", according to the first people to see it at its world premiere in his hometown of Wellington.And Jackson, who also saw The Return of the King for the first time at the premiere, having worked on it until a week ago, was pretty pleased himself."I was very moved actually to see the response from the audience to the movie combined with the movie itself," he told Radio New Zealand today as stars...
  • New Zealand capital goes wild for 'Lord of the Rings' world premiere

    12/01/2003 9:50:28 AM PST · by Texican72 · 4 replies · 171+ views
    Associated Press WELLINGTON, New Zealand - New Zealand's usually sleepy capital came awake in a roar of celebration Monday as stars returned for the premiere of the final film in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, parading through the city in open cars flanked by black-shrouded horsemen, orcs and hobbits that inhabit the beloved novels by JRR Tolkien. Wellington's streets were jammed with 100,000 people standing 15-deep to fete the stars, including Liv Tyler, Ian McKellen, Orlando Bloom, Viggo Mortensen and Elijah Wood. Bloom thrilled the crowd when he opened his jacket to reveal an "I love New Zealand" T-shirt....
  • Rings Trilogy calls it a wrap

    11/30/2003 2:53:30 PM PST · by maquiladora · 25 replies · 185+ views
    The Hearld Sun ^ | 1st Dec 2003
    Tonight in Wellington, the third in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, The Return Of The King will take over the city for its world premiere. The Fellowship's journey will end. It also will be the end for a longer journey for the Trilogy's genius director Peter Jackson, whose vision seven years ago realised the concept of shooting the three films simultaneously and saw the first two movies become smash hits at box offices around the world. If Return Of The King lives up to expectations it is estimated it will make for New Line Studio a staggering $5 billion...
  • I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.

    11/29/2003 6:31:10 PM PST · by anka · 27 replies · 243+ views
    I live in LA and work in the movie business, so I was able to go to the first Academy Awards screening of ROTK yesterday. Thanksgiving day, and they still filled a big theater - I think that says something about the enthusiasm of LOTR's many fans in the film industry! What struck me most was how much ROTK really is the third act of one huge epic. All climax and payoff. I couldn't even begin to count the number of thrilling action sequences. And yet, even more than with the other movies, the emotional focus is tight on the...
  • Farcical Commentary on the 'Lord of the Rings'

    11/24/2003 3:12:14 PM PST · by sociotard · 13 replies · 736+ views
    http://www.mcsweeneys.net/2003/04/22fellowship.html ^ | Summer of 2002 | Jeff Alexander and Tom Bissell
    U N U S E D A U D I O C O M M E N T A R Y B Y H O W A R D Z I N N A N D N O A M C H O M S K Y , R E C O R D E D S U M M E R 2 0 0 2 , F O R T H E F E L L O W S H I P O F T H E R I N G ( P L A T I N U...
  • Secrets of ?The King?

    11/23/2003 3:13:15 PM PST · by sourcery · 28 replies · 191+ views
    Newsweek ^ | 23 Nov 2003 | Jeff Giles
    Can't break this hobbit: Will Frodo destroy the ring? Will Aragorn wear the crown? An exclusive first look at director Peter Jackson's exhilarating "Lord of the Rings" finale, "The Return of the King"--and at the battles the cast waged on-screen and off.
  • Return of the King makes cover of Newsweek

    11/23/2003 6:17:48 PM PST · by The Iguana · 5 replies · 215+ views
    Newsweek/MSNBC ^ | December 1, 2003 | Jeff Giles
    Secrets of ‘The King’Can’t break this hobbit: Will Frodo destroy the ring? Will Aragorn wear the crown? An exclusive first look at director Peter Jackson’s exhilarating ‘Lord of the Rings’ finale, ‘The Return of the King’—and at the battles the cast waged on-screen and off By Jeff GilesNEWSWEEK Dec. 1 issue — Peter Jackson’s “The Return of the King” begins with a flashback to what seems like the beginning of time—young Deagol is fishing with his creepy brother Smeagol when suddenly a fish on his line pulls him out of the boat and underwater, where he spots a gold ring...
  • Music for Returning Kings [interview with Howard Shore]

    11/19/2003 4:13:37 PM PST · by ecurbh · 11 replies · 352+ views
    SoundtrackNet ^ | 11/19/2003 | Dan Goldwasser
    For the third year in a row, SoundtrackNet had an opportunity to talk with prolific composer Howard Shore about his work on the epic Lord of the Rings trilogy. This time, we talked with him about the final chapter in the saga, Return of the King, as well as his plans for the next year. This is now the third year for Lord of the Rings, with the final chapter: The Return of the King. Given that you had The Two Towers: Expanded Edition to compose, did you get a break before starting in on this final film?No, I never...
  • The Two Towers Extended DVD -- Blade's Review

    11/15/2003 10:37:25 PM PST · by Gordian Blade · 50 replies · 167+ views
    Vanity | 15-Nov-03 | Gordian Blade
    I went to my local video store to rent a video for tonight. After rejecting several titles (like Chicago) because I didn't care for the politics of the actors and/or directors, I reluctantly settled on Terminator 3. Like California reluctantly settled on Arnold I suppose. As I was about to pay, I saw a stack of Two Towers Extended DVD sets on the counter with $28.99 price tags on them. I asked the cashier when those came out, and she said, "I think last month." So I put T3 back on the shelf and put my $28.99 plus tax down...
  • Miffed Star (Christopher Lee) Boycotts Rings Premiere

    11/13/2003 8:56:00 AM PST · by Starbug · 48 replies · 328+ views
    Stuff.com ^ | 11-14-2003 | Tom Cardy
    Miffed star boycotts Rings premiere14 November 2003By TOM CARDYVeteran British actor Christopher Lee is boycotting The Return of the King world premiere in Wellington after learning all his scenes as the evil wizard Saruman have been cut.Lee, 81, said he had expected to appear in seven minutes' worth of climactic scenes in the final Lord of the Rings film. "Of course I'm very shocked, that's all I can say," he told Britain's ITV television channel. Asked if he would attend the premiere, Lee said: "No, what's the point of going?"Most of the film's main stars, including Sir Ian McKellen, Elijah...
  • New Line Hires Limbaugh spinmeister, David Horowitz + more for Return of the King Oscar Campaign

    11/06/2003 2:08:42 PM PST · by maquiladora · 18 replies · 151+ views
    The Associated Press ^ | November 6, 2003 | Patrick Goldstein
    As the head of the entertainment division of Sitrick and Co., a leading crisis-management public relations firm, Allan Mayer is an expert spinmeister on showbiz scandal and disaster. He's helped Rush Limbaugh deal with the fallout from revelations that he was addicted to painkillers allegedly obtained from his maid. He's been aiding R. Kelly, who is facing 21 felony counts of possessing child pornography. He also advised Paula Poundstone after the comedian's children were put into foster care following her pleading no contest to charges of child endangerment. So what's Mayer doing working as an Oscar consultant for New Line...
  • LOTR: ROTK Soundtrack Features a Special Song by Annie Lennox

    10/31/2003 8:18:41 AM PST · by Starbug · 19 replies · 912+ views
    Yahoo ^ | 10-28-03 | Press Release / New Line Cinema
    LOS ANGELES, Oct. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- The original soundtrack to "The Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King," the final installment in Peter Jackson's epic "The Lord Of The Rings" trilogy, will be released on Reprise/WMG Soundtracks on November 25. The film opens nationwide on December 17 from New Line Cinema.With music composed, orchestrated and conducted by Oscar and Grammy Award winner Howard Shore, who composed the scores to the two previous films in the Trilogy, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return Of The King" also features the new song "Into The West," performed by Grammy Award...